{"id":153274,"date":"2026-05-29T13:26:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T21:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/29\/amy-coney-barrett-swatting-incident-tests-whether-anyone-cares-about-threats-to-judges-who-arent-on-scotus\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T13:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T21:26:22","slug":"amy-coney-barrett-swatting-incident-tests-whether-anyone-cares-about-threats-to-judges-who-arent-on-scotus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/29\/amy-coney-barrett-swatting-incident-tests-whether-anyone-cares-about-threats-to-judges-who-arent-on-scotus\/","title":{"rendered":"Amy Coney Barrett Swatting Incident Tests Whether Anyone Cares About Threats To Judges Who Aren\u2019t On SCOTUS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Somebody claiming to be a neighbor called the Fairfax County non-emergency line just after 9 p.m. Wednesday to report gunshots<\/a> at a home belonging to Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Officers coordinated with the Supreme Court Police already stationed at the residence, figured out within minutes that the report was fake, and \u2014 per the department\u2019s own statement \u2014 didn\u2019t even have to send extra units. It\u2019s being characterized as a swatting attempt, the practice of tricking armed cops into storming someone\u2019s house where something can go catastrophically wrong. <\/p>\n

Threats against Supreme Court justices garner more attention, but incidents of violent intimidation directed at federal judges are up across the country without much fanfare. Balls and Strikes tallied<\/a> 241 threats against 202 judges in 2026 alone, and that story came out in March<\/em>. Supreme Court justices have access to heightened security \u2014 like the officers already stationed at Justice Barrett\u2019s house \u2014 but lower court judges aren\u2019t as fortunate. That\u2019s not to downplay the seriousness of this specific incident, but it should frame how we talk about it.<\/p>\n

In January, conservative judges were mocking the rise in threats and harassment against fellow judges. Judge James Ho blasted the Federal Judges Association for having \u201cpoliticized\u201d security for judges<\/a>. \u201cToday, they\u2019re fearful when a judge receives an unsolicited pizza delivery at home,\u201d he said, glibly ignoring that these orders communicate we know where you live<\/em> and are being made in the name of Judge Esther Salas\u2019s murdered son<\/a>. And the intimidation tactics go beyond the macabre pizza deliveries. Judge Ana Reyes described being called a \u201cforeign-born lesbian\u201d who should \u201ceat a bullet\u201d<\/a> after an immigration ruling. At an event last fall<\/a>, Judge Paul Grimm quoted a threat made against a different federal judge \u201cWe are going to rape your daughter in front of you, cut her head off so the blood splatters on you, then rape you, and kill you.\u201d As Judge Grimm explained, these threats are flooding in whether judges were appointed by Democrats or Republicans.<\/p>\n

Though, between the lines, it seemed that the quality connecting that bipartisan collection of judges was ruling against Donald Trump<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to deal with political violence \u2014 from any ideology \u2014 when one side treats it as a joke. Judge Ho\u2019s mockery fits a broader pattern. Paul Pelosi was nearly beaten to death with a hammer in his own home, and the response from right-wing social media was to turn his skull fracture into a punchline and a conspiracy theory. When a gunman impersonating a police officer assassinated Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband and shot State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Senator and former Supreme Court clerk Mike Lee\u2019s contribution \u2014 before the suspect was even in custody \u2014 was to post the shooter\u2019s photo captioned \u201cThis is what happens When Marxists don\u2019t get their way\u201d<\/a> and \u201cNightmare on Waltz Street,\u201d because he\u2019s too lazy to even correctly spell Tim Walz\u2019s last name. The suspect turned out to be a Trump-rally-attending registered Republican, but Lee didn\u2019t seem interested in correcting the record. He just deleted the posts and moved on.<\/p>\n

An attempted swatting is horrific, but if the same people snickering about Pelosi and the murders in Minnesota cast a threat against a justice with round-the-clock security as somehow more grave, it speaks to a more fundamental breakdown that prevents any serious response to the core problem. <\/p>\n

For the record, I suspect at least one conservative voice will find a way to turn this incident into a reason to build a White House ballroom.<\/p>\n

The media plays a role in enabling this cynicism. The NBC report on this story is 13 paragraphs long. The unprecedented wave of threats facing lower court judges over the past couple years is relegated to paragraph 12. Obviously, mainstream reporters feel compelled to clear their whos, whats, wheres, and whens first. But with more people getting their news from social media blurbs and circulating headlines without ever bothering to read the underlying story, a penultimate paragraph mention may as well not even exist. <\/p>\n

If this story becomes \u201ccrazy leftists target conservative justice\u201d as opposed to \u201cjudges face increasing threats across America and deserve more security,\u201d then nothing changes. Indeed, elevating this story to suggest the Supreme Court is uniquely under siege gets the threat profile exactly backwards.<\/p>\n

While the Supreme Court enjoys deservedly heightened security, the majority has put targets on the lower courts. The Roberts Court has spent the last year using the shadow docket to vacate district court orders without explanation, reprimand trial judges for failing to read the supermajority\u2019s mind, and broadcast to the administration and its online auxiliaries that the judges enforcing the law are the real problem. Dozens of federal judges told the New York Times<\/em><\/a> the emergency docket was eroding public trust in their work, and most agreed that it had caused real harm. When the highest court in the country keeps signaling \u2014 without bothering to write an opinion \u2014 that the trial bench is an illegitimate obstacle to the president, it\u2019s not a surprise that the same people who stormed the Capitol would start issuing violent threats.<\/p>\n

Roberts says personally directed hostility toward judges is \u201cdangerous\u201d and \u201chas got to stop.\u201d That\u2019s true, but his proposed solution is \u201cstop questioning us<\/a>\u201d as opposed to pumping the breaks on churning out rulings baselessly suggesting that lower court judges are arbitrarily undermining Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Part of recognizing political violence as a problem beyond ideology is being honest about the partisan disconnect in the response to it. When conservatives keep reacting to violence by laughing at the murder of Democrats and constructing flimsy conspiracies to sell books blaming liberals and downplaying right-wing violence<\/a>, it not only engenders more right-wing violence, but opens the door to previously more rare left-inspired violence as they internalize the insane idea that it\u2019s a tactic that the other side gets to use without repercussions. <\/p>\n

You know, like when people storm the Capitol and try to kill the police and get pardons. That\u2019s the sort of thing that normalizes all<\/em> political violence.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, this event results in real change. But it probably won\u2019t. We\u2019ll be treated to a bunch of takes about how this is all a liberal\u2019s fault and then if it comes out that this was one of the legions of disgruntled MAGA-heads who think Justice Barrett is a RINO for ruling against Trump\u2019s tariffs \u2014 or an embarrassment to her family as Trump himself said<\/a> \u2014 it will be quietly shunted aside as inconvenient. <\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Judge With Overinflated View Of His Intelligence Blasts Judges For \u2018Overinflated View Of Their Intelligence\u2019<\/a>
Legalweek\u2019s Annual Judicial Panel: A Clear And Present Danger To Our Judges \u2014 And The Rule Of Law<\/a>
\u2018I\u2019ll Put A Bullet In Your Head\u2019: The Disturbing Reality Of Being A Judge In America<\/a>
Jonathan Turley\u2019s Swatting Theory Fizzled So He Launched His Own Phony Assault<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Amy Coney Barrett Swatting Incident Tests Whether Anyone Cares About Threats To Judges Who Aren\u2019t On SCOTUS<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Somebody claiming to be a neighbor called the Fairfax County non-emergency line just after 9 p.m. Wednesday to report gunshots<\/a> at a home belonging to Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Officers coordinated with the Supreme Court Police already stationed at the residence, figured out within minutes that the report was fake, and \u2014 per the department\u2019s own statement \u2014 didn\u2019t even have to send extra units. It\u2019s being characterized as a swatting attempt, the practice of tricking armed cops into storming someone\u2019s house where something can go catastrophically wrong. <\/p>\n

Threats against Supreme Court justices garner more attention, but incidents of violent intimidation directed at federal judges are up across the country without much fanfare. Balls and Strikes tallied<\/a> 241 threats against 202 judges in 2026 alone, and that story came out in March<\/em>. Supreme Court justices have access to heightened security \u2014 like the officers already stationed at Justice Barrett\u2019s house \u2014 but lower court judges aren\u2019t as fortunate. That\u2019s not to downplay the seriousness of this specific incident, but it should frame how we talk about it.<\/p>\n

In January, conservative judges were mocking the rise in threats and harassment against fellow judges. Judge James Ho blasted the Federal Judges Association for having \u201cpoliticized\u201d security for judges<\/a>. \u201cToday, they\u2019re fearful when a judge receives an unsolicited pizza delivery at home,\u201d he said, glibly ignoring that these orders communicate we know where you live<\/em> and are being made in the name of Judge Esther Salas\u2019s murdered son<\/a>. And the intimidation tactics go beyond the macabre pizza deliveries. Judge Ana Reyes described being called a \u201cforeign-born lesbian\u201d who should \u201ceat a bullet\u201d<\/a> after an immigration ruling. At an event last fall<\/a>, Judge Paul Grimm quoted a threat made against a different federal judge \u201cWe are going to rape your daughter in front of you, cut her head off so the blood splatters on you, then rape you, and kill you.\u201d As Judge Grimm explained, these threats are flooding in whether judges were appointed by Democrats or Republicans.<\/p>\n

Though, between the lines, it seemed that the quality connecting that bipartisan collection of judges was ruling against Donald Trump<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to deal with political violence \u2014 from any ideology \u2014 when one side treats it as a joke. Judge Ho\u2019s mockery fits a broader pattern. Paul Pelosi was nearly beaten to death with a hammer in his own home, and the response from right-wing social media was to turn his skull fracture into a punchline and a conspiracy theory. When a gunman impersonating a police officer assassinated Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband and shot State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Senator and former Supreme Court clerk Mike Lee\u2019s contribution \u2014 before the suspect was even in custody \u2014 was to post the shooter\u2019s photo captioned \u201cThis is what happens When Marxists don\u2019t get their way\u201d<\/a> and \u201cNightmare on Waltz Street,\u201d because he\u2019s too lazy to even correctly spell Tim Walz\u2019s last name. The suspect turned out to be a Trump-rally-attending registered Republican, but Lee didn\u2019t seem interested in correcting the record. He just deleted the posts and moved on.<\/p>\n

An attempted swatting is horrific, but if the same people snickering about Pelosi and the murders in Minnesota cast a threat against a justice with round-the-clock security as somehow more grave, it speaks to a more fundamental breakdown that prevents any serious response to the core problem. <\/p>\n

For the record, I suspect at least one conservative voice will find a way to turn this incident into a reason to build a White House ballroom.<\/p>\n

The media plays a role in enabling this cynicism. The NBC report on this story is 13 paragraphs long. The unprecedented wave of threats facing lower court judges over the past couple years is relegated to paragraph 12. Obviously, mainstream reporters feel compelled to clear their whos, whats, wheres, and whens first. But with more people getting their news from social media blurbs and circulating headlines without ever bothering to read the underlying story, a penultimate paragraph mention may as well not even exist. <\/p>\n

If this story becomes \u201ccrazy leftists target conservative justice\u201d as opposed to \u201cjudges face increasing threats across America and deserve more security,\u201d then nothing changes. Indeed, elevating this story to suggest the Supreme Court is uniquely under siege gets the threat profile exactly backwards.<\/p>\n

While the Supreme Court enjoys deservedly heightened security, the majority has put targets on the lower courts. The Roberts Court has spent the last year using the shadow docket to vacate district court orders without explanation, reprimand trial judges for failing to read the supermajority\u2019s mind, and broadcast to the administration and its online auxiliaries that the judges enforcing the law are the real problem. Dozens of federal judges told the New York Times<\/em><\/a> the emergency docket was eroding public trust in their work, and most agreed that it had caused real harm. When the highest court in the country keeps signaling \u2014 without bothering to write an opinion \u2014 that the trial bench is an illegitimate obstacle to the president, it\u2019s not a surprise that the same people who stormed the Capitol would start issuing violent threats.<\/p>\n

Roberts says personally directed hostility toward judges is \u201cdangerous\u201d and \u201chas got to stop.\u201d That\u2019s true, but his proposed solution is \u201cstop questioning us<\/a>\u201d as opposed to pumping the breaks on churning out rulings baselessly suggesting that lower court judges are arbitrarily undermining Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Part of recognizing political violence as a problem beyond ideology is being honest about the partisan disconnect in the response to it. When conservatives keep reacting to violence by laughing at the murder of Democrats and constructing flimsy conspiracies to sell books blaming liberals and downplaying right-wing violence<\/a>, it not only engenders more right-wing violence, but opens the door to previously more rare left-inspired violence as they internalize the insane idea that it\u2019s a tactic that the other side gets to use without repercussions. <\/p>\n

You know, like when people storm the Capitol and try to kill the police and get pardons. That\u2019s the sort of thing that normalizes all<\/em> political violence.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, this event results in real change. But it probably won\u2019t. We\u2019ll be treated to a bunch of takes about how this is all a liberal\u2019s fault and then if it comes out that this was one of the legions of disgruntled MAGA-heads who think Justice Barrett is a RINO for ruling against Trump\u2019s tariffs \u2014 or an embarrassment to her family as Trump himself said<\/a> \u2014 it will be quietly shunted aside as inconvenient. <\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Judge With Overinflated View Of His Intelligence Blasts Judges For \u2018Overinflated View Of Their Intelligence\u2019<\/a>
Legalweek\u2019s Annual Judicial Panel: A Clear And Present Danger To Our Judges \u2014 And The Rule Of Law<\/a>
\u2018I\u2019ll Put A Bullet In Your Head\u2019: The Disturbing Reality Of Being A Judge In America<\/a>
Jonathan Turley\u2019s Swatting Theory Fizzled So He Launched His Own Phony Assault<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Amy Coney Barrett Swatting Incident Tests Whether Anyone Cares About Threats To Judges Who Aren\u2019t On SCOTUS<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Somebody claiming to be a neighbor called the Fairfax County non-emergency line just after 9 p.m. Wednesday to report gunshots at a home belonging to Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Officers coordinated with the Supreme Court Police already stationed at the residence, figured out within minutes that the report was fake, and \u2014 per the department\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}